Roman Kunsman

Roman Kunsman (born 7 December 1941 in Kuibyshev, Russia; died 26 October 2002 in Beit Gamliel, Israel) was a jazz composer, flautist and saxophonist. From 1963 until 1970 he led his own well known quartet in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). His composition Loneliness won an award at the Second Leningrad Jazz Festival. In 1967 his composition Ray Of Darkness was performed by the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra at the Moscow Jazz Festival. After his departure for Israel in 1970 Kunsman's name was erased from the jazz history of the Soviet Union and he wasn't mentioned in Russia again until the 1990s. In 1971 Kunsman formed The Platina with drummer Aharon 'Arale' Kaminski and guitarist Yitzhak Klepter. The group originally worked as a backing band to Arik Einstein and later Chava Alberstein and initially had a jazz-rock style before becoming one of Israel's most popular and influential jazz ensembles. Kunsman's solo album Heavy Skies, which featured a mix of modal jazz and post-bop, was recorded in 1979 but not released until 2003 after his death.